High levels of radiation detected in Northwest rainwater

[flamingdem]

http://www.king5.com/news/environment/High-levels-of-radiation-detected-in-Northwest-rainwater--125391598.html

SEATTLE -- A Seattle nuclear watchdog group is accusing the federal government of failing to keep the public informed of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

In the days following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the U.S. began monitoring radiation from Japan's leaking nuclear power plants.

Most of the public attention went to the air monitoring which showed little or no radiation coming our way. But things were different on the rain water side.

"The level that was detected on March 24 was 41 times the drinking water standard," said Gerry Pollet from Heart of America Northwest. He reviewed Iodine 131 numbers released by the Environmental Protection Agency last spring.

"Our government said no health levels, no health levels were exceeded.When in fact the rain water in the Northwest is reaching levels 130 times the drinking water standards," said Pollet.

[newfie11]

1. oops there goes the thyroid

[flamingdem]

3. This is bad news for all those who use rainwater for drinking

expecting it to be fairly pure in the NW region..

[caraher]

5. Not good, but not catastrophic

As the last sentence of the linked article in the OP says, "The EPA points out this was a brief period of elevated radiation in rainwater, and says safe drinking water standards are based on chronic exposure to radiation over a lifetime."

It would be a serious problem if the levels remained high for a long period of time, but this spike, while certainly undesirable, is unlikely to cause detectable health effects. (Indeed, if NW rainwater is indeed comparatively pure of other contaminants - I wouldn't know - it would probably still be more healthy to drink even with the briefly elevated I-131 than water from other sources.)

[bvar22]

8. Don't Worry.

Be Happy!
:) :) :)

Besides, what are you going to do?

Hahahahahahahaha!




Who will STAND and FIGHT for THIS American Majority?
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

[flamingdem]

9. So what if you infant needs to cut our their thyroid in a decade or so...

.. it's not the worst kind of cancer you can get after all..

[FBaggins]

13. So what if your infant is abducted by aliens...

... the chances are about as high.

[kristopher]

15. What other sources? Everglades swamp water?

Attempts to diminish fear by obvious platitudes aren't likely to be successful. I don't know why this story is making the rounds; I think we could agree it is a regrettable past incident that can't be altered or mitigated and that consequently, there really is nothing more to do than move on.

But don't minimize the fact that some lives will likely end early because of what happened. That is a kind of indifference that serves no one's interest.

[ensho]

2. there is no way of avoiding the radiation

it is here to stay, and to accumulate

cancer Barons are happy

[AndyTiedye]

6. That is Why The are So Desperate to Slash Medicare and Medicaid Now

They always wanted to, of course, but there is a sense of urgency there since Fukushima
that wasn't there before. They don't want a bunch of poor cancer patients clogging up
"their" hospitals, and they certainly don't want to pay the bills.

[miyazaki]

10. are you out of your freaking mind?

the barbaric bullshit one reads here.

[caraher]

4. There was no secret that rainwater contained I-131

After all, their source was the EPA - where's the coverup?

Question: did any drinking water similarly exceed the drinking water standard?

Second question: what total radiation dose would they estimate from exposure of people in the Pacific Northwest to rainwater?

[FBaggins]

7. What a crock.

Our government said no health levels, no health levels were exceeded.When in fact the rain water in the Northwest is reaching levels 130 times the drinking water standards

Rain water and drinking water aren't the same thing.

Even if they were, that standard is set assuming year-round consumption (over a lifetime), while this reading was a short-time occurance. So even the hypothetical hobo whose sole water supply comes from catching rainwater in a trash bag still couldn't exceed "health levels".

Senseless and dishonest (the levels were in no way "high") fearmongering trying to get attention/donations.

[Nihil]

14. There you go again ...

... bringing science & facts into a thread that exists solely on
hype & panic-mongering ...

"Where's the corium????!!!"

:P

[Fledermaus]

11. What's the rainwater like now? Fukushima is like an open pit nuclear dirty bomb.

Or is it all in this water now?

[FBaggins]

12. Let me guess...

...you don't see any difference between those two photos, do you?

What's the rainwater like now?

Same as it has been for months.

[SpoonFed]

16. Thanks for another...

one of your un-cited magical downplaying graphs.
Thanks!

[FBaggins]

17. Awww... poor SpoonFed

Let's all take up a collection to buy SF a mouse with two buttons.

Or teach him how to use it.

[Nederland]

19. Since anti-nukes can't add...

...it's not surprising that they don't know how to right click either.

[NickB79]

18. All you have to do is right-click "Copy Image Location"

And paste that into a new window to see the citation for it. This particular image comes from Berkeley, btw.